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Ryan Gosling has played many extremely iconic characters throughout his lengthy career. None, however, have been as loved and cherished as his recent appearance in Greta Gerwig’sBarbie.Playing the role of Ken in the record-breaking film, the actor managed to bring life to a character that was overlooked on more than a few levels.
Becoming the highlight of a film full of eye-catching performances was no easy feat for the Oscar-nominated actor. During an interview for the promotion of the Margot Robbie film, he spoke on exactly this. Gosling revealed that playing Ken was the most difficult character that he had ever played, for more than a few reasons.
What Was Ryan Gosling’s First Impression of Ken?
One of the most important parts of Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’sBarbiewas the overshadowing of Ken. In the glaring, blinding light that is the Barbies, their boyfriends seemed to go completely unnoticed. This was a theme that went to the very origin and roots of the film, asRyan Goslingrevealed during an interview withW Magazine.
My first impression of Ken was the title page of the script, which said “Barbie and Ken”, and then “and Ken” was scratched out.”
He was asked what his first impression of the character of Ken was, and he answered candidly. The actor revealed that the first interaction he had with the film was when he opened the script of it. On the first page, he saw the words ‘Barbie and Ken’ with the last two words cut out.
Whether this was ironic at the hand of the scriptwriters, or almost the name of the film was not made clear. Either way, it made perfect sense for the story, only adding to the character’s arc.
Playing Ken Was Uncharted Territory
Ryan Gosling then went on to talk about how he felt about the character after reading the script. He very quickly realized that this would be his most challenging role to this date. One would assume this to be because of his responsibility to play a part in a movie that had as many eyes on it asBarbie.However, this was not the only reason why the actor thought so.
“And then the next was, this is the hardest part I’ll ever play.”He stated,“Yeah. I mean, how do you approach playing a 70-year-old crotchless doll? There’s no research you can do for that. There’s no one you can shadow. There’s no documentaries you can watch. There’s no books written about it.”He added,“You’re on your own.”
He mentioned the reason why he approached the role this way, revealing that he did not have anything to go off of when it came to this character. There were no books, no actors who had played the character in the past that he would take advice from, and absolutely nothing he could use as source material. The lack of references caused the actor to get concerned about how he would approach this role.
Ananya Godboley
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2219
Ananya Godboley is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on TV shows, with over 2,000 articles published. She has been an entertainment journalist for the past two years. Currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in psychology from K.R. Mangalam University, Ananya also likes to fangirl as a full-time job. She covers news and analyses on anything from Rick and Morty to Hannibal and even Arcane. In between these lines, she also enjoys superheroes and Taylor Swift.A philosophy enthusiast, Ananya enjoys digging deeper into the media she consumes, trying to understand the root of her favorite characters' behavior.
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